Surviving Judgement Day
by OrtonsMistress
Summary: When Tony answered Jenny's phone that day in the diner, Gibbs' world was turned upside down again. Just my take on Judgement Day with what I would have liked to seen happen. One-shot that may turn into a small multi-chapter.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize I do not own. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

****NCIS****

_Los Angeles July 2008 _

Leroy Jethro Gibbs had spent the better part of two months sitting in the same hospital room that held NCIS Director Jenny Shepard. When he called Jenny's phone that afternoon in May, he was surprised when his Senior Field Agent answered. Hearing that Jenny was in the hospital after being shot multiple times, his heart felt like it had stopped beating again. The only other time he felt like that was sixteen years earlier when he received word that his wife and daughter had been murdered. Of course, he and Jenny hadn't been together in almost a decade, but he still cared about her. Knowing that she had no family to speak of, or anyone to make decisions as to her care, he stepped up and was her voice so to speak.

"Good morning, Agent Gibbs," Jenny's nurse said, walking over and looking at her patient's vitals on the machine. "How did she do last night?"

"Stayed the same basically," he replied, watching as the machines were breathing for her. "How much longer can she be comatose before it becomes too damaging to her?"

Looking at him with an expression that Gibbs could only describe as pity, she answered him as honestly as she could. "She really needs to wake up. However, she does have some brain activity, so not all is lost. Doctor Kinkirk will be in shortly to talk with you more. He might be able to tell you about what happens if she stays in this coma much longer."

"Thank you, Lucy," he said, as he continued staring at Jenny's seemingly lifeless body.

****NCIS****

Later in the afternoon, Gibbs was doing what Jenny's doctors had suggested. He was talking to her about their past. "You remember that stakeout in Positano?" he asked, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "When I took that bullet to the thigh, then we got back to the safe house and you 'played nurse' to me? You got so angry that I couldn't pace myself, cause I couldn't help you finish off." Sighing softly, he reached forward and took her hand in his. "Remember your first night back as Director? I took you to look for Ari, and we sat in the car for almost an hour talking, waiting for him. Talked to Ziver last night; she and Tony are still beating themselves up for you getting shot. Abby's walking around depressed without either of us there." Moving down to her ear, he whispered adamantly, "Damn it, Jen, you need to wake up. There are quite a few of us who will be hurt if you die."

****NCIS****

Later that night, Gibbs was trying to sleep, rather uncomfortably in the chair, when he heard a low moan coming from Jenny's bed. Snapping his eyes open, he got up and moved beside her. "Come on, Jen, open your eyes," he said, pushing the nurse call button a few times, hoping to get someone in there quickly.

"Mmm," she moaned again softly as she could hear Gibbs telling her to open her eyes. There was a small part of her that was shocked he was there. The last few months, hell the whole last year and a half, was less than pleasant between the two. She wanted to say his name, but there was something stuck down her throat preventing her from talking. Finally forcing her eyes to open, she was met with the dark cobalt blue eyes of the one man she loved and had foolishly walked away from a decade ago. Before Gibbs could say anything to her, both her doctor and nurse rushed into the room. Doing the few exercises the doctor asked of her, they finally said they'd remove the breathing tube from her throat and would put her on a nasal canella. "Jethro," she managed to croak out, once the tube was out of her throat. "What happened?"

"You don't remember the shootout?" he questioned, watching as her eyes moved around constantly, almost like she was remembering bits and pieces of it. "Going to Will's diner in the desert with Mike? The shootout with Svetlana's people?"

"I remember now," she said, wincing a bit as she moved in the bed. "What happened to Mike?"

"He's fine, he came in and shot the last couple of her men," he replied, not wanting to tell her much more than that. "He's back down in Mexico now."

"I had to protect you," she mumbled quietly, turning her head to look out the window. "I couldn't let my screw-up place you in danger like that. I didn't care what happened to me. I just didn't want you to be killed because I couldn't kill her back in Paris."

"Why didn't you tell me that you never completed the job? Why did you let me think we got out of Paris clean?" he asked, as those two questions were burning in his mind for the two months that she was in the coma.

Sighing softly, Jenny pushed the button to raise her bed slightly. "When was I supposed to tell you, Jethro? We left Paris practically the next day. I didn't see you again for six years, and when I did see you again I didn't know how to tell you," she said, looking over at him. "Then you got blown up and came back from your Mexican Margarita Safari a different person. I was obsessed with La Grenouille and finding him. I really never thought much about Svetlana after we got out of Paris."

"You getting shot like this, Jen, it's made me realize that I care for you as much as I did for Shannon," he said, causing tears to form in her eyes. "I love you, Jen."

"Jethro, I…" she started, unable to keep the tears from falling. "I really never meant to hurt you all those years ago."

"It's in the past," he said, not wanting to tell her it was all right, cause she had hurt him by leaving the way she had. "Let's just focus on now."

"I love you, too," she whispered, as she leaned forward to kiss him for the first time in almost a decade.

A/N: I'm not sure if I should leave this as a one shot story or maybe post another chapter or two. The decision is up to you guys, if you want another chapter just let me know in your reviews.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: Anyone you recognize I do not own. They are all owned by Donald Bellisario.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews for the first chapter. I have decided to continue this story, although it may only end up being about five chapters. I've got ideas to get me through to chapter five, so we'll see what happens after that. I've also got the next chapter of In Your Arms finished and ready to send off to my beta. Accidentally In Love is coming along slowly but surely, but it is currently giving me fits to get written.

****NCIS****

Jenny was sitting stiffly on the hospital bed. She was being released that day but had been ordered to stay in Los Angeles for the remainder of the week. She was healing, but the doctors worried about a cross-country flight so soon after she'd awakened from the coma.

She and Gibbs hadn't talked much about their newfound relationship, or the fact that they had admitted they were still in love with each other. Of course if you looked at the two of them, you could plainly see it. The doctors were insistent on her staying with someone once she had been released to go back to D.C. When Gibbs had heard that, he immediately stated that Jenny would be staying at his place, and that was the end of that.

"Hey, Jen, I got you all signed out if you're ready to go now," Gibbs said, walking into her room then to grab her bags and help her into the wheelchair.

"Thanks," she moaned, having sat in the chair a little harder than she intended, jarring her injured side a bit. "So who is my security detail while we're at the hotel?"

Not answering her question, Gibbs pushed the wheelchair toward the elevator, knowing his lack of an answer would drive her crazy a bit. Truth was he didn't trust her to NOT run away from a security detail again, which is why he told Sec-Nav that he would be her personal bodyguard and that he wouldn't let her out of his sight.

"Jethro," she said, turning her head slightly to look up at him. "Oh Lord, it's you, isn't it?"

"Don't sound so excited, Jen," he grumbled lightly, as the elevator got to their floor and he pushed her into it.

"It's not that, I just know how you are," she said, while thinking silently to herself, 'I know how I am, and being alone with just you in a hotel room for three more days, who knows what the hell will happen.'

"What's that supposed to mean?" he questioned, a slightly indignant tone to his voice.

"Oh, I don't know," she said, rolling her eyes. "You tend to be a little overbearing. You won't let me do anything for myself."

"You are supposed to be recuperating," he replied, tangling his fingers lightly in her hair, which she was thankfully letting grow out again. He leaned down and whispered in her ear, "Let me take care of you, Jenny."

Feeling his warm breath tickling her neck, she was suddenly paralyzed by the feelings that were bubbling up inside of her-feelings that she hadn't felt in nearly a decade. She knew they were about to cross into dangerous territory while she was recovering from the shooting. Before she really realized it, they were out of the elevator and he was pushing her toward the exit. There was still so much going on in her mind, everything from the past couple of years, to why she had left him in Paris. Letting him help her out of the chair and into the car that had been sent to pick her up, she scooted into the backseat. Watching him take the wheelchair back inside the hospital, she waited till he got back in and told the driver what hotel to take them to, before she got the courage to ask him the question that kept dancing in her mind.

"Why do you want to take care of me?" she asked quietly, unable to meet his penetrating gaze.

"Jen, I told you when you woke up that I love you," he replied, putting up the partition so the driver couldn't listen to their discussion. "Yeah, it took me almost losing you to allow myself to admit it again, but I do and probably always have-even after Paris."

"Can we really make this work?" she asked, biting her lip nervously.

Looking at her intently, Gibbs thought of the best way to answer the question. He could see something swirling in her emerald eyes, a look he had never really seen before, maybe not since her early days when he was her boss. Doubt. Did she really doubt the way that he truly felt about her? Used to be that when she would bite her lip like that, it made him want to lean in and kiss her deeply. The way she did it was tantalizing to him, but he wasn't sure how the kiss would be reciprocated this time around. Deciding to use actual words for once, he hoped that he could say how he felt without sounding like a bumbling idiot, trying to ask out the first girl he liked.

"Jen, you know as well as I do that what we had in Paris was special," he started, trying to gather his thoughts in his mind. "Yeah, we were both keeping secrets, but the love and passion between us was for real."

Looking out the window briefly, Jenny tried to force back her tears and the lump in her throat, before she started speaking again. "Jethro," she began, cursing herself mentally when she heard the faint waiver in her voice. "Things have happened in the last nine years. We're both different people now."

"That doesn't change how I feel about you now, Jen," he said, pulling her into his arms. "You and I, we can make it work this time."

Leaning in and kissing him softly, she rested her hand against his cheek before she started speaking again. "I hope you're right."

"Of course I'm right," he stated firmly, as he kissed the inside of her wrist lightly. "We can do a trial run of us until it's time for you to return to being Director. If at that time you feel like we can't make it, or that us being together will interfere with our jobs, then we can go back to being just friends."

Sighing softly, she weighed all of her options. She knew that even if they didn't work, that he said they could be friends but would it really be that simple? She wasn't sure if they had ever really been friends since she came back as Director. Yeah, they were able to work together still, but it wasn't like they hung out and had pizza and beer on the weekends. "Could you really go back to being just friends, Jethro?"

"If it means I can keep you in my life in some way, then yes, I could go back to being just friends," he replied honestly, as the car pulled up in front of the hotel they were staying at.

Watching as he got out of the car, Jenny wasn't all that surprised when he went around to open her door and help her out. "Thank you," she said, stepping out of the car gingerly. Waiting by the trunk, she watched as he grabbed her bags and let him lead her into the lobby of the hotel. "So are you my only security detail?"

"There will be an agent posted at all times on our floor, near the room," he replied, as they headed toward the elevators. "More or less to keep the press from hounding you in case it gets leaked that you're staying here for the next three days."

Nodding her head lightly, she was still trying to wrap her mind around her and Gibbs being together again. Sure, this was what she had wanted since she had returned three years earlier, but she had also allowed herself to realize that it was never meant to be. The biggest threat to their newfound relationship was her job title. Being the director of NCIS, it would not be 'politically correct' to be caught sleeping with a subordinate, even if the relationship had first occurred when SHE had been his probie. Deciding then that she was tired of arguing with herself and trying to talk herself out of being happy again, she reached out slyly and grabbed his hand in hers, giving his fingers a light squeeze. Hearing the 'ding' of the elevator, they walked on and went up to the top floor. Once there, they got out and walked down to the room. After they had gotten inside, she grabbed him by the lapel of his jacket and pushed him lightly up against the door.

"I'm done trying to tell myself all the reasons that this wouldn't work between us," she whispered, pressing her body up against his. "I'm tired of putting this job before my own personal happiness. I love you, Jethro. I've never stopped. I don't care what ramifications may come from us being together, it's not going to change things-not again."

Wrapping his arms around her waist, Gibbs hugged her to him before reaching up and tangling his fingers in her hair, forcing her to tilt her head back to look up at him. Lowering his mouth to hers, he surprised her with the gentleness of the kiss. Letting his tongue coax her lips apart, she became a pile of mush standing there being held by the one man she had always loved. She knew that there would be some money collected by Tony no doubt, once they returned to D.C. and their relationship was leaked all over the Beltway.

Pulling back from the kiss, he simply said, "I love you, too, Jen."


End file.
